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We report on an experimental demonstration of spatially-resolved detection of atomic hydrogen in flames using a single-ended configuration yielding 656-nm lasing in the backward direction upon 2-photon pumping with 205-nm femtosecond laser pulses. Spatial resolution is achieved by temporally-resolved detection of the backward lasing using a streak camera. The method is demonstrated in CH4/O2 flames; both in a setup consisting of two flames, with variable spacing between the flames, and in a single flame. Results from the two-flame experiment show that the backward lasing technique is able to determine changes in the separation between the flames as this distance was altered. By maximizing the temporal resolution of the streak camera, obtaining a highest spatial resolution of 1.65 mm, it is possible to resolve the hydrogen signal present in the two reaction zones in the single flame, where the separation between the reaction zones is ∼2 mm. The lasing signal is strong enough to allow single-shot measurements. Results obtained by backward lasing are compared with 2-photon planar laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) images recorded with detection perpendicular to the laser beam path and the results from the two methods qualitatively agree. Although further studies are needed in order to extract quantitative hydrogen concentrations, the present results indicate great potential for spatially resolved single-ended measurements, which would constitute a very valuable asset for combustion diagnostics in intractable geometries with limited optical access. It appears feasible to extend the technique to detection of any species for which resonant two-photon-excited lasing effect has been observed, such as O, N, C, CO and NH3.

The effect of combustion on a gliding arc (GA) discharge is investigated using simultaneous measurements of current and voltage waveforms, as well as imaging and spectroscopic analysis of plasma and flame luminescence. Attributed to the existence of flame, the breakdown voltage and current peak are reduced and the bright sparks during breakdown are dampened. The intrinsic reason is largely owing to the thermal effect of flame. Electrical breakdown is mainly determined by the reduced electric field strength (E/N), which is inversely proportional to temperature. Assuming a constant E/N for breakdown, the combustion-induced temperature increment gives rise to a reduction of the breakdown voltage. The gas composition seems to have less impact on the breakdown voltage. However, the addition of CH 4 can induce more radicals (e.g., H atoms) that enhance the intensity of relevant spectral emissions, especially from OH*. Due to the transport of relatively long-lived radicals, the width of the plasma column of the GA discharge is broadened to form a local reaction zone, serving as a flame holder. Interestingly, the plasma channel moves more smoothly as the flame is present. It implies that the flow field is less turbulent owing to combustion.

The effect of a Rotating Gliding Arc (RGA) plasma discharge on the flame in a scaled Siemens Dry Low Emission (DLE), SGT-750, burner was experimentally investigated under atmospheric combustion conditions. The central pilot section of the burner, named RPL (rich pilot lean), was redesigned with an integrated high voltage electrode to generate an RGA. The exhaust gas was sampled and analysed in terms of CO and NOx emissions, and the CO emission data show that the RGA extends the lean blow-out limit (LBO). High-speed OH chemiluminescence imaging was employed to understand the transient behaviour of the flame in both conditions with and without RGA and also to study the process of flame re-stabilization by the assistance of the RGA. A flame kernel, initiated around the RGA channel, was observed to play an important role in the re-stabilizing process of the flame. Although the NOx emission for the flame with RGA was found to be higher than that without RGA, it was still less than what previous data show for operating conditions with the RPL flame. (Less)

The mechanism of stabilizing a turbulent premixed methane-air flame using warm filamentary plasma is investigated by using laser diagnostics. First, stabilization of a turbulent jet flame is demonstrated in a setup using a pin-to-pin plasma discharge. The coupled plasma-flame structures were visualized utilizing planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of formaldehyde (CH2O) and methylidyne radicals (CH), as well as laser Rayleigh scattering thermometry imaging. The results show that the plasma channel and the flame front are spatially separated by a layer of hot burning products attributed to the flame propagation from the plasma core. Because of this spatial separation, the impacts of plasma on combustion are primarily thermal since the energetic radical species (such as O, H), produced by the discharge, have short equilibration time and cannot spread far away from the discharge channel before reaching the equilibrium state. From this point of view, turbulence would be beneficial for promoting the transport of plasma-produced radicals and thus bridge the gap between the plasma and the flame front. The plasma is still able to stabilize the flame. Based upon the experimental results, a frequent ignition-flame propagation (FIFP) model is proposed to explain the flame stabilization process. For the contracted plasma filament, the local power density is high enough to initialize the flame kernel that propagates away from the plasma channel until extinction. The propagation process is, however, strongly affected by turbulence. Local extinction is highly probable and thus the flame front has to be close to the ignition source at strong turbulence. At such conditions, the stabilized flame can be regarded as a large number of flame pockets, repeating the three phases of ignition, propagation and extinction, which can be summarized as the FIFP model. It infers that the flame propagation phase is important for sustaining the flame to complete combustion. Hence, this phase should be extended, which is more probable to achieve if the plasma ignition pilot is located in a section of limited turbulence.

The current work aims at investigating the detailed spatial structure of the thin plasma column of a gliding arc (GA) discharge extended in N2-CH4 gas mixtures, using visualization techniques. The GA discharge was operated at up to 5 atm in a high-pressure vessel with extensive optical access. The results show that the emission intensity from the plasma column increased tenfold with the addition of 0.1% CH4 in nitrogen, compared to that in pure N2. Furthermore, an additional layer located around the GA discharge column is detected. Imaging through spectral filters and spectral analysis of the emitted signal indicate that the emissions of this outer layer are mostly from the CN A-X and CH A-X transitions. This outer layer can propagate and extinguish dynamically, similar to the flame front in combustion. Besides, the separation of this outer layer to the plasma core decreases with pressure. The layered structure and its dynamical behaviors can be explained by a plasma-sustained radical propagation mechanism. The high-power plasma column can produce a high-temperature zone with rich atomic species, surrounded by the relatively cold N2-CH4 mixture. At the mixing layer between the high-temperature zone and the N2-CH4 mixture, some highly exothermic reactions occur to produce excited CN and CH species, which emit their specific spectra. As the high-temperature zone expands with time, the outer layer propagates outward. However, with the propagation continuing, the radical species involved in the outer layer formation are rapidly consumed, and thus, this layer disappears when it propagates too far away from the plasma column.

In this Letter, we have investigated 845 nm lasing generation in atomic oxygen, present in a lean methane-air flame, using two-photon pumping with femtosecond 226 nm laser pulses, particularly focusing on the impact of nanosecond repetitively pulsed glow discharges forcing on the backward lasing signal. Characterizations of the backward lasing pulse, in terms of its spectrum, beam profile, pump pulse energy dependence, and divergence, were conducted to establish the presence of lasing. With plasma forcing of the flame, the backward lasing signal was observed to be enhanced significantly, ∼50%. The vertical concentration profile of atomic oxygen was revealed by measuring the backward lasing signal strength as a function of height in the flame. The results are qualitatively consistent with results obtained with two-dimensional femtosecond two-photon-absorption laser-induced fluorescence, suggesting that the backward lasing technique can be a useful tool for studies of plasma-assisted combustion processes, particularly in geometries requiring single-ended standoff detection.

Plasma assisted combustion is a very active research field due to the potential of using the technology to improve combustion efficiency and decrease pollutant emission by stabilizing lean burning flames. It has been shown in a number of studies that a small amount of electrical energy can be deposited in the flame by applying microwaves, resulting in enhanced flame propagation and thus improved flame stabilization and delayed lean blow-out. However, the effects have not yet been properly quantified since there are significant experimental challenges related to the determination of both the laminar burning velocity and the electric field strength. In the present work, a novel setup is described, where a well-defined burner system is coupled to a microwave cavity. The burner is of heat flux type, where a flat laminar flame is stabilized on a perforated burner head. The advantage of this burner for the current use is that the method and related uncertainties are well studied and quantified, and the geometry is suitable for coupling with the microwave cavity. The setup, experimental procedure, and data analysis are described in detail in this article. Laminar burning velocity for a methane-air flame at ϕ = 0.7 is determined to certify that the burner works properly in the microwave cavity. The flame is then exposed to pulsed microwaves at 1 kHz with a pulse duration of 50 µs. The laminar burning velocity at these conditions is determined to be 18.4 cm/s, which is an increase by about 12% compared to the laminar burning velocity that is measured without microwave exposure. The setup shows potential for further investigations of lean flames subjected to various microwave pulse sequences. The data are of high quality with well-defined uncertainties and are therefore suitable to use for validation of chemical kinetics models.

We demonstrate range-resolved detection of atomic hydrogen in methane/oxygen flames based on 2-photon excited backward lasing using 205-nm femtosecond laser pulses. Range resolution is achieved by temporally resolving the backward emission with a streak camera.

We report on an experimental demonstration of spatially-resolved detection of atomic hydrogen in flames using a single-ended configuration. The lasing signal in a backward direction is obtained by two-photon pumping with 205-nm femtosecond laser pulses.

An alternating current (AC) gliding arc can be conveniently operated at atmospheric pressure and efficiently elongated into the ambient air by an air flow and thus is useful for surface modification. A high speed camera was used to capture dynamics of the AC gliding arc in the presence of polymer surfaces. A gap was observed between the polymer surface and the luminous region of the plasma column, indicating the existence of a gas boundary layer. The thickness of the gas boundary layer is smaller at higher gas flow-rates or with ultrasonic irradiation to the AC gliding arc and the polymer surface. Water contact angle measurements indicate that the treatment uniformity improves significantly when the AC gliding arc is tilted to the polymer surface. Thickness reduction of the gas boundary layer, explaining the improvement of surface treatment, by the ultrasonic irradiation was directly observed for the first time.

Translational, rotational, vibrational and electron temperatures of a gliding arc discharge in atmospheric pressure air were experimentally investigated using in situ, non-intrusive optical diagnostic techniques. The gliding arc discharge was driven by a 35 kHz alternating current (AC) power source and operated in a glow-type regime. The two-dimensional distribution of the translational temperature (Tt) of the gliding arc discharge was determined using planar laser-induced Rayleigh scattering. The rotational and vibrational temperatures were obtained by simulating the experimental spectra. The OH A–X (0, 0) band was used to simulate the rotational temperature (Tr) of the gliding arc discharge whereas the NO A–X (1, 0) and (0, 1) bands were used to determine its vibrational temperature (Tv). The instantaneous reduced electric field strength E/N was obtained by simultaneously measuring the instantaneous length of the plasma column, the discharge voltage and the translational temperature, from which the electron temperature (Te) of the gliding arc discharge was estimated. The uncertainties of the translational, rotational, vibrational and electron temperatures were analyzed. The relations of these four different temperatures (Te>Tv>Tr >Tt) suggest a high-degree non-equilibrium state of the gliding arc discharge.

Gaining information of species, temperature, and velocity distributions in turbulent combustion and high-speed reactive flows is challenging, particularly for conducting measurements without influencing the experimental object itself. The use of optical and spectroscopic techniques, and in particular laser-based diagnostics, has shown outstanding abilities for performing non-intrusive in situ diagnostics. The development of instrumentation, such as robust lasers with high pulse energy, ultra-short pulse duration, and high repetition rate along with digitized cameras exhibiting high sensitivity, large dynamic range, and frame rates on the order of MHz, has opened up for temporally and spatially resolved volumetric measurements of extreme dynamics and complexities. The aim of this article is to present selected important laser-based techniques for gas-phase diagnostics focusing on their applications in combustion and aerospace engineering. Applicable laser-based techniques for investigations of turbulent flows and combustion such as planar laser-induced fluorescence, Raman and Rayleigh scattering, coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering, laser-induced grating scattering, particle image velocimetry, laser Doppler anemometry, and tomographic imaging are reviewed and described with some background physics. In addition, demands on instrumentation are further discussed to give insight in the possibilities that are offered by laser flow diagnostics.

A method for simultaneous measurements of fluorescence lifetimes of two species along a line is described. The experimental setup is based on picosecond laser pulses from two tunable optical parametric generator/optical parametric amplifier systems together with a streak camera. With an appropriate optical time delay between the two laser pulses, whose wavelengths are tuned to excite two different species, laser-induced fluorescence can be both detected temporally and spatially resolved by the streak camera. Hence, our method enables one-dimensional imaging of fluorescence lifetimes of two species in the same streak camera recording. The concept is demonstrated for fluorescence lifetime measurements of CO and OH in a laminar methane/air flame on a Bunsen-type burner. Measurements were taken in flames with four different equivalence ratios, namely ϕ = 0.9, 1.0, 1.15, and 1.25. The measured one-dimensional lifetime profiles generally agree well with lifetimes calculated from quenching cross sections found in the literature and quencher concentrations predicted by the GRI 3.0 mechanism. For OH, there is a systematic deviation of approximately 30 % between calculated and measured lifetimes. It is found that this is mainly due to the adiabatic assumption regarding the flame and uncertainty in H2O quenching cross section. This emphasizes the strength of measuring the quenching rates rather than relying on models. The measurement concept might be useful for single-shot measurements of fluorescence lifetimes of several species pairs of vital importance in combustion processes, hence allowing fluorescence signals to be corrected for quenching and ultimately yield quantitative concentration profiles.

The stability and re-ignition characteristics of the plasma column of an alternating current (AC) powered gliding arc discharge operating in atmospheric-pressure air were investigated for better plasma-mode controlling and optimized applications. By modulating the AC power supply and the air flow field, the states of afterglow plasma column were varied. When pulsating the AC power supply sequence, re-ignitions of the afterglow columns were introduced and their characteristics were studied using simultaneous high-speed photography and electrical measurements. Two re-ignition types were observed in the afterglow column with different decay times (the temporal separation of two sequential pulsed AC power trains). For a short decay time (120 kV/m), the electron impact ionization becomes dominant to trigger the spark re-ignition event.

A high-power gliding arc (GA) discharge was generated in a turbulent air flow driven by a 35 kHz alternating current electric power supply. The effects of the flow rate on the characteristics of the GA discharge were investigated using combined optical and electrical diagnostics. Phenomenologically, the GA discharge exhibits two types of discharge, i.e., glow type and spark type, depending on the flow rates and input powers. The glow-type discharge, which has peak currents of hundreds of milliamperes, is sustained at low flow rates. The spark-type discharge, which is characterized by a sharp current spike of several amperes with duration of less than 1 μs, occurs more frequently as the flow rate increases. Higher input power can suppress spark-type discharges in moderate turbulence, but this effect becomes weak under high turbulent conditions. Physically, the transition between glow- and spark-type is initiated by the short cutting events and the local re-ignition events. Short cutting events occur owing to the twisting, wrinkling, and stretching of the plasma columns that are governed by the relatively large vortexes in the flow. Local re-ignition events, which are defined as re-ignition along plasma columns, are detected in strong turbulence due to increment of the impedance of the plasma column and consequently the internal electric field strength. It is suggested that the vortexes with length scales smaller than the size of the plasma can penetrate into the plasma column and promote mixing with surroundings to accelerate the energy dissipation. Therefore, the turbulent flow influences the GA discharges by ruling the short cutting events with relatively large vortexes and the local re-ignition events with small vortexes.

Ozone vapor, O3, is here visualized in a gliding arc discharge using photofragmentation laser-induced fluorescence. Ozone is imaged by first photodissociating the O3 molecule into an O radical and a vibrationally hot O2 fragment by a pump photon. Thereafter, the vibrationally excited O2 molecule absorbs a second (probe) photon that further transits the O2-molecule to an excited electronic state, and hence, fluorescence from the deexcitation process in the molecule can be detected. Both the photodissociation and excitation processes are achieved within one 248 nm KrF excimer laser pulse that is formed into a laser sheet and the fluorescence is imaged using an intensified CCD camera. The laser-induced signal in the vicinity of the plasma column formed by the gliding arc is confirmed to stem from O3 rather than plasma produced vibrationally hot O2. While both these products can be produced in plasmas a second laser pulse at 266 nm was utilized to separate the pump- from the probe-processes. Such arrangement allowed lifetime studies of vibrationally hot O2, which under these conditions were several orders of magnitude shorter than the lifetime of plasma-produced ozone. (Less)

A laser method to suppress background interferences in pump-probe measurements is presented and demonstrated. The method is based on structured illumination, where the intensity profile of the pump beam is spatially modulated to make its induced photofragment signal distinguishable from that created solely by the probe beam. A spatial lock-in algorithm is then applied on the acquired data, extracting only those image components that are characterized by the encoded structure. The concept is demonstrated for imaging of OH photofragments in a laminar methane/air flame, where the signal from the OH photofragments produced by the pump beam is spatially overlapping with that from the naturally present OH radicals. The purpose was to perform for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, single-shot imaging of HO(2) in a flame. These results show an increase in signal-to-interference ratio of about 20 for single-shot data.

A laser diagnostic concept for measurement of potassium chloride (KCl) and potentially other alkali compounds in large-scale boilers and furnaces of limited optical access is presented. Single-ended, range-resolved, quantitative detection of KCl is achieved by differential absorption light detection and ranging (DIAL) based on picosecond laser pulses. Picosecond DIAL results have been compared experimentally with line-of-sight measurements using a commercial instrument, the in situ alkali chloride monitor (IACM), utilizing differential optical absorption spectroscopy. For centimeter-scale range resolution and a collection distance of 2.5 m, picosecond DIAL allowed for measurement of KCl concentrations around 130 ppm at 1200 K, in good agreement with values obtained by IACM. The DIAL data indicate a KCl detection limit of around 30 ppm for the present experimental conditions. In addition, a double-pulse DIAL setup has been developed and demonstrated for measurements under dynamic conditions with strong Mie scattering. The picosecond DIAL results are discussed and related to possible implementations of the method for measurements in industrial environments.

A gliding arc is a quenched plasma that can be operated as a non-thermal plasma at atmospheric pressure and that is thus suitable for large-scale plasma surface treatment. For its practical industrial use the discharge should be extended stably in ambient air. A simple analytical calculation based on Ohm’s law indicates that the critical length of alternating current (AC) gliding arc discharge columns can be larger than that of a corresponding direct current (DC) gliding arc. This finding is supported by previously published images of AC and DC gliding arcs. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the critical length can be increased by increasing the AC frequency, decreasing the serial resistance and lowering the gas flow rate. The predicted dependence of gas flow rate on the arc length is experimentally demonstrated. The gap width is varied to study an optimal electrode design, since the extended non-equilibrium discharge can be extinguished due to the ignition of an arc discharge at the closest electrode gap. It is experimentally found that as the gap is wider, the discharge column tends to be longer.

Summary form only given. Plasmas in thermal equilibrium have been in use in different kinds of combustion systems since the invention of the internal combustion engine and the spark ignition systems. Recently the possibility of using plasmas in non-thermal equilibrium for energy-efficient production of radicals and excited species that increase the combustion speed has attracted attention. This interest stems not only from the need for more efficient combustion but also from a wish to increase fuel flexibility with a minimum of modification in existing combustor designs. This paper report experiments performed using a dielectric barrier surface discharge to increase the combustion rate in a Bunsen type burner. The burner has a coaxial geometry where premixed fuel-air flows in the outer annular tube while a jet of air can be injected through the central tube, thus increasing turbulent mixing and flame speed. When the central jet is used the power density but not the total power of the flame increases and gives the possibility of studying the influence of the discharge as a function of power density in the flame. Measurements of the electrical parameters together with two-dimensional distributions of OH, CH2O and CH using Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence have been used to analyze the influence of the electrical energy on the combustion process. It is found that, although the total power in the flame is held constant, when the power density in the flame increases the influence of the electrical power on the flame characteristics decreases.

The present paper focuses on some of the major challenges in laser-based combustion diagnostics; namely limited optical access, large probe volumes, quantification of species concentrations from laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), and imaging of non-fluorescing species.

Fluorescence lifetimes of toluene as a function of oxygen concentration in toluene/nitrogen/oxygen mixtures have been measured at room temperature using picosecond-laser excitation of the S1–S0 transition at 266 nm. The data satisfy the Stern–Volmer relation with high accuracy, providing an updated value of the Stern–Volmer slope. A newly developed fluorescence lifetime imaging scheme, called Dual Imaging with Modeling Evaluation (DIME), is evaluated and successfully demonstrated for quantitative oxygen concentration imaging in toluene-seeded O2/N2 gas mixtures.

A novel technique, designated dual imaging and modeling evaluation (DIME), for evaluating single-laser shot fluorescence lifetimes is presented. The technique is experimentally verified in a generic gas mixing experiment to provide a clear demonstration of the rapidness and sensitivity of the detector scheme. Single-laser shot fluorescence lifetimes of roughly 800 ps with a standard deviation of similar to 120 ps were determined. These results were compared to streak camera measurements. Furthermore, a general fluorescence lifetime determination algorithm is proposed. The evaluation algorithm has an analytic, linear relationship between the fluorescence lifetime and detector signal ratio. In combination with the DIME detector scheme, it is a faster, more accurate and more sensitive approach for rapid fluorescence lifetime imaging than previously proposed techniques. Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to analyze the sensitivity of the detector scheme as well as to compare the proposed evaluation algorithm to previously presented rapid lifetime determination algorithms. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America

Fluoresce lifetime imaging in combination with structured laser illumination planar imaging has been performed in wide field imaging. Measurements were conducted by imaging laminar gaseous flows seeded with toluene through scattering media.

A temporal filtering technique, complementary to spectral filtering, has been developed for laser-induced fluorescence measurements. The filter is applicable in cases where the laser-induced interfering signals and the signal of interest have different temporal characteristics. For the interfering-signal discrimination a picosecond laser system along with a fast time-gated intensified CCD camera were used. In order to demonstrate and evaluate the temporal filtering concept two measurement situations were investigated; one where toluene fluorescence was discriminated from interfering luminescence of an aluminum surface, and in the other one Mie scattering signals from a water aerosol were filtered out from acetone fluorescence images. A mathematical model was developed to simulate and evaluate the temporal filter for a general measurement situation based on pulsed-laser excitation together with time-gated detection. Using system parameters measured with a streak camera, the model was validated for LIF imaging of acetone vapor inside a water aerosol. The results show that the temporal filter is capable of efficient suppression of interfering signal contributions. The photophysical properties of several species commonly studied by LIF in combustion research have been listed and discussed to provide guidelines for optimum use of the technique.

A picosecond-LIDAR system aiming at diagnostics in large-scale combustion devices is developed and characterized. This LIDAR system, using 30 ps Nd:YAG-pulses, has been demonstrated for single-ended measurements on gaseous acetone.

Optical diagnostics have been evaluated to observe the time dependence of segregation of impurity phases at solid oxide fuel cell anodes.

In the present work, a picosecond lidar system aiming at single-ended combustion diagnostics in full-scale combustion devices with limited optical access, such as power plants, is described. The highest overall range resolution of the system was found to be

A burner design with integrated electrodes was used to couple a gliding arc (GA) discharge to a high-power and large-scale turbulent flame for flame stabilization. Simultaneous OH and CH2O planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) and CH PLIF measurements were conducted to visualize instantaneous structures of the GA-assisted flame. Six different regions of the GA-assisted flame were resolved by the multi-species PLIF measurements, including the plasma core, the discharge-induced OH region, the post-flame OH region, the flame front, the preheat CH2O region and the fresh gas mixture. Specifically, the OH profile was observed to be ring-shaped around the gliding arc discharge channel. The formaldehyde (CH2O) was found to be widely distributed in the entire measurement volume even at a low equivalence ratio of 0.4, which suggest that long-lived species from the gliding arc discharge have induced low-temperature oxidations of CH4. The CH layer coincides with the interface of the OH and CH2O regions and indicates that the flame front and the discharge channel are spatially separated by a distance of 3–5 mm. These results reveal that the discharge column acts as a movable pilot flame, providing active radicals and thermal energy to sustain the flame. High-speed video photography was also employed to record the dynamics of the GA-assisted flame. This temporally resolved data was used to study the ignition and propagation behaviors of the flame in response to a temporally modulated burst-mode discharge. The results indicate that turbulent flame can be sustained by matching temporal parameters of the high-voltage bursts to the extinction time of flame.

Laser-based Raman spectroscopy is a powerful technique for non-intrusive measurements of chemical composition in gas, liquid, and solids. However, weak signals make it challenging to employ the technique for diagnostics under harsh conditions with various background interferences. To overcome such limitations, we have devised a method, polarization lock-in filtering (PLF) based on temporal modulation of the excitation laser polarization, to filter out polarization-independent signals from acquired data. The PLF method applied for continuous Raman spectroscopy measurements of a biomass pyrolysis process showed promising filtering abilities for unwanted background fluorescence signals. A broadband fluorescence background interference was suppressed by up to a factor of 50. Therefore, released species during the biomass pyrolysis process were readily identified with their Raman spectrum signatures and their amounts quantified. In addition, the PLF method provided Raman spectra of low background, from which a gradual change in hydrocarbons released at different stages during the pyrolysis could be observed. Altogether, the efficient background suppression method increases the general applicability of Raman spectroscopy under conditions where interfering signals present a challenge and a limiting factor.

We report on the observation of backward-propagating 656-nm lasing of atomic hydrogen in flame using 205-nm femtosecond laser pulses. It shows a donut-shaped spatial mode and smooth temporal profile, suggesting spatially-resolved measurements in few-millimeters resolution.

The thermal state of a glow discharge with intermediate current in flowing atmospheric air is investigated by a combination of Rayleigh scattering thermometry imaging and numerical simulation. Results from the simulation indicate that during the initial breakdown the local translational temperature can reach a huge value (e.g. 6000 K) but decreases quickly due to strong heat transfer to the surrounding cold air. In the gliding stage, the translational temperature of plasma is balanced by the input power density and the heat dissipation rate. As the gas flow rate is increased, the translational temperature in the glow plasma column diminishes. The flow affects the thermal state of plasma from two aspects. First, it promotes elongation of the plasma column to decrease the input power density. Second, the flow enhances local heat dissipation. As a result, the translational temperature is lowered due to flow. Using a two-temperature model, which considers the translational temperature, the vibrational temperature and their transitions, the non-thermal state of plasma is further analyzed. The gas flow is found to reduce the translational temperature and the vibrational–translational relaxation rate, and thus prevent thermalization of the plasma column.